Healthcare Employment Grew At Twice Its Normal Pace Last Month
The healthcare industry added 34,000 jobs last month, which amounts to twice its average monthly gain over the prior 12 months. A significant portion of that number came from the ambulatory healthcare services sector, which includes increases in physicians' offices, outpatient care centers, and home healthcare services.
With the uptick, the healthcare industry has added jobs in 131 consecutive months. The last time the sector lost jobs was in July 2003.
Dan Diamond, the managing editor of the Daily Briefing, also points out that 100,000 jobs have been added in the healthcare sector over the first five months of the year, and the industry is on pace to add more than 230 jobs this year
Still, May's healthcare sector growth amounted to less than 3%. And overall, jobs growth in the healthcare sector has been remarkably consistent on a year-over-year average. Former OMB Director Peter Orszag tweeted this chart:
